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Pál Maléter
From the English Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A1l_Mal%C3%A9ter Pál Maléter (4 September 1917 – 16 June 1958) was the military leader of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Maléter was born to Hungarian parents in Eperjes, a city in Sáros County, in the northern part of Historical Hungary, today Prešov, Slovakia. He studied medicine at the Charles University, Prague, before moving to Budapest in 1938, going to the military academy there. He fought on the Eastern Front of World War II, until captured by the Red Army. He became a Communist, trained in sabotage, fought against the Germans in Transylvania and was sent back to Hungary, where he was noted for his courage and daring. In 1956 he was a colonel and the commander of an armoured division stationed in Budapest when he was sent to suppress the Hungarian Uprising, but on making contact with the insurgents he decided to join them, helping to defend the Kilian Barracks. He was the most prominent member of the Hungarian military to change sides, allying himself with the insurgents rather than the Rákosi government. As the chief military presence on the insurgents' side he came into contact with the new government, and enjoyed a rapid promotion from colonel to general, and on 29 October was appointed Minister of Defense. On 3 November he went to Tököl, located near Budapest, to negotiate with the Soviet military forces based there. During discussions on the following day, and against international law, Soviet officers arrested Maléter at the conference and imprisoned him. He was executed along with Imre Nagy and others in a Budapest prison on 16 June 1958, on charges of attempting to overthrow the Hungarian People's Republic. His first wife and three children went to the U.S. in the wake of the uprising, while his second wife remained in Hungary; both wives subsequently remarried. In June 1989, on the anniversary of their deaths, Imre Nagy, Pal Maleter, three others who had died in prison and a sixth, empty coffin symbolising all those who had died were formally reburied in Budapest with full honours. A pine has been named after him http://www.arrowheadalpines.com/conifers2_gallery/pages/Pinus%20mugo%20'Pal%20Maleter'.htm – ironically, given Maléter's height, a dwarf variety. Maléter was known for his great height; according to historian Victor Sebestyen, Maléter was "more than two meters tall," or at least six feet eight inches. The legend After the Revolution was defeated, the long-awaited news was that Malzer was not captured by the Russians, or, if he did, escaped and gathered troops in the Bakony Mountains to save the Revolution. Alternatively, the site was the Beech. (Perhaps it is no coincidence that both mountains were a legendary hiding place for folk heroes and soldiers, and in the mountains of Mecsek, the resistance of insurgents - the invisible of the Mecsek - continued for a few weeks.) "(The legend) can be explained to the same extent as the reputation of Pál Maléter's comet rise in the revolutionary days. As a soldier, a young officer who was already in command, he was more than capable of satisfying the people's demand for the Romantic Liberty Hero, "wrote historian György Litván More information on the Hungarian Wikipedia page https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mal%C3%A9ter_P%C3%A1l. Category:Biographies Category:Hungary